TheLittleSongbird Jack Frost is not quite one of my favourite cartoons of all time, but it is a beautiful and hugely enjoyable cartoon that's deserving of more praise. It's also one of those cartoons that I love and appreciate even more as a 23-year old adult than as a child.The animation in Jack Frost is absolutely wonderful. Not just the beautifully drawn wintry landscape, that sets up the entire atmosphere of the cartoon and its story so well, and the animation on the autumn leaves and at the end, but also some truly imaginative work in the creation of the snowman and the spooky sight gags. Regarding the latter, the pumpkins/Jack O-Lanterns part stood out. The colours are a lovely mix of brightly colourful and dark, the characters are drawn well with little roughness and no obvious over-cutesiness and the backgrounds are truly beautiful on the eyes.Music is a component that is very important to me when judging animation, or any film and such for that matter. The music in Jack Frost in no way disappoints, the little bear's song is adorable without being sickly sweet. In fact all the songs are lovely, with the standout being the irresistibly catchy one of the scarecrow, that song is also a lot of fun and the sequence itself is hilarious. The incidental scoring has a lot of haunting depth, rhythmic energy and lush orchestration, no surprise as it is from Carl Stalling whose work on cartoons was always consistently great, often elevating them to a higher level.Often, 1930s cartoons or very visual/technical cartoons are not so strong in the story department, which can have an afterthought feel(but when so many components for that cartoon are so good and when the story still has appeal that's easy to ignore). The story in Jack Frost doesn't come over quite as strikingly as the animation and music, but it does fare stronger than the stories of most cartoons made around the time. It moves swiftly, sustains the running time just right with little obvious padding, and is just a charming, hugely entertaining and poignant story in general. One where you can identify every step of the way with the little bear without being manipulated into doing so. The cartoon has some sweet humour, like with the scarecrow, and the darker parts with Old Man Winter and the spooky sight gags are very imaginatively handled, and in a way that didn't feel too much or out of place. There's even room for morals on obedience and respect, and while it could have been so easy to hammer the morals in a heavy-handed manner Jack Frost manages to avoid this trap, it also couldn't have ended more perfectly either.Characters in Jack Frost do a great job moving the story forward and making it as succinct as possible(children will be able to follow it with no problem and it shouldn't be too demanding for adults either). The bear is an adorable leading character without over-sentimentalising the story, as can happen with cute characters, while Jack Frost is similarly engaging and Old Man Winter in his brief appearance is a suitably sinister 'antagonist' without being too scary, in fact he's also fun in a very twisted sort of way. The characters are solidly voiced too.All in all, a beautiful classic cartoon and should be seen more often. 10/10 Bethany Cox

MartinHafer This cartoon is from Ub Iwerks--the guy who did most of the animating in the early Disney Company cartoons, such as "Steamboat Willie". After a few years with Disney, Ub decided to go out on his own--and less than a decade later, he was back with Disney. Although he was very talented, and you can see some of it in "Jack Frost", you can also see why he failed. On the plus side, the cartoon's animation is very nice. Not as nice as the Silly Symphonies and Mickey cartoons coming from Disney, but still very nice. The cartoon also had color. While it wasn't the Technicolor that Disney was using (they had exclusive rights to it for several years), the Cinecolor looks very nice and has a wider color spectrum than many Cinecolor films--with some actual blues. BUT, despite looking good, the cartoon itself is insipid mush! It consists of lots of happy singing animals in the forest, Jack Frost and Old Man Winter singing and cavorting--and not a single trace of humor!! All in all, this is like torture to have to watch today, as the cartoons were amazingly dull (aside from Disney's) during this era. Cute characters and singing...YECCH!!!

theowinthrop This little cartoon is basically very charming. It is about a small bear who is enjoying the last days of summer, when he and the other animals are made aware by the arrival of Jack Frost that winter is on the way. Frost, when not painting the autumnal colors, warns everyone that they should prepare for the total change in the weather (i.e., prepare to hibernate). But the little bear doesn't believe the cold weather will effect him - he has a nice fur coat. His mother puts him to bed, but he tries to get away, and she spanks him. When she and her husband fall asleep he sneaks away, sniffling that his mother would be sorry. Naturally, he soon finds he has made a dreadful mistake. He is freezing, especially when confronted and chased by old man winter. He tries to find another shelter, but only one (with a skunk in it) is willing to let him in. In the conclusion he is helped back home by Jack Frost.The colors of the cartoon are rich, particularly in scenes where Jack Frost is painting the various leaves autumnal colors. In one nice sequence he is painting pumpkins, turning them into jack-o-lanterns. They end up doing a spooky dance that scares the little bear. He is also present when a scarecrow begins dancing (this five years before Ray Bolger made a dancing and singing scarecrow his first career role). As a charming little cartoon for children about six or seven or eight years old this is fine, and grown-ups will appreciate the art work.

only_an_ocean_away This cartoon is one of my all-time favorites. I absolutely love old cartoons and movies, so naturally I had to give this one a try and I found that this is a frightening little goody. It's about a little bear who has run away from home and is one the run from "Old Man Winter." His adventure is wonderfully written and even more wonderfully animated. This cartoon will have you smiling from the very beginning to the cleverly done end.